


Over the Crow's Nest

by Talagand



Category: One Piece
Genre: Anxiety, Baterilla (mentioned), Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Past Violence, Nakamaship, Post-Marineford
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27121418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talagand/pseuds/Talagand
Summary: After Marineford, Buggy and Shanks share three cups of sake.One for the father who was never theirs, one for the child who could have been, and a last one for the man who never got to be either.
Relationships: Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks & Buggy
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55





	Over the Crow's Nest

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Watashitachi wa Roger kaizoku desu (we still stand proud)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14884211) by [stereden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stereden/pseuds/stereden). 



One for sorrow,

Two for mirth,

Three for a funeral,

Four for a birth,

Five for silver,

Six for gold,

Seven for a secret never to be told.

 _One for Sorrow_ , traditional nursery rhyme

* * *

Sphinx was beautiful this time of the year.

Oh, who was he kidding, Sphinx was beautiful any time of the year, old Whitebeard had made sure of it. Sending every treasure this way to keep it safe and precious like a bubble of green peace.

Stubborn man, giving up his treasure? How softhearted can someone be?

But the truth is that now, giving where they were and all that just happened, Buggy couldn't even bring himself to be mad at him. At least he had chosen how to live, and how to die.

And what a death.

He was well past the annoyance of the battle ~~the war call it what it was that was no simple fight no he had gone through war. Again.~~ and from all the chaos only the tiredness remained.

His body was torn, and his mind scrambled like an over-shaken boat in the middle of a sea storm. And he hadn't even actually participated in the clash, Davy Jones save him. But just being there was exhausting, surrounded by monsters and pain and voices.

(Oh Seas all those voices screaming and then going off as if they never were there.)

(But they had been.)

He had filmed the whole thing, even tho he had just wanted to run, and run, and never even look back into the madness.

But he had stayed, and he had filmed, and he had _seen_ and showed the world what they did, what they said. The tears they shred, the blood they spilled.

(And there was so much blood, how could a small body have so much blood?)

(How could a bay end up red from purging a sin that never even existed?)

He had wanted to run, he thought bitterly, but where was he even supposed to go? He had gotten himself into this mess, no matter what he told everybody.

Yes, he had ended up there because of that damn rubber Monkey, but he wasn't fooling himself: he could have gotten out and hid in a safe place until it was all over.

(No map was worth this pain. No fame was worth his life.)

(But what about the boy's?)

He had gone and filmed it all for the world to see, and he had seen it all himself ~~every fight every face every scream and cry and silence~~ because someone had to. And he hated to be that someone, he never actually wanted the reputation he always argued he deserved.

(Because those who heard him never knew he actually did.)

But someone had to, because they were not going to ~~hey Marines what happened to justice?~~ and Seas be damned if he was going to let them wrap this under the rug.

(Not again, not him. Not after what they did to his Captain.)

(And wasn't the resemblance ironic? He was sure Roger would be laughing if it wasn't for the fact that he must be knocked out by the punch of his choice's consequences.)

(Too late to regret now, isn't it Captain? How about thinking about it before offing yourself to the Flying Dutchman?)

~~How about telling them? How about remembering that kids weren't always by blood?~~

He would not let them make a show of killing a child. They already had a circus by his birth he wasn't about to let his death be another party.

(And there had been so much blood, how could small bodies have so much blood?)

(How could a bay end up red from purging a sin that never even existed?)

(That they _didn't know_ it existed, sin or not.)

He filmed it all for the kid that was not his brother and for the father that had almost been his. He stared and put on some waterproof makeup for the camera and stayed. And stayed. And stood there until the end, until he thought it was his end too.

(Because the kid was not a Gol D. but neither was he and still. _Still._ )

(Is blood really thicker than water?)

(Isn't it just harder to clean?)

He didn't know what had happened really. Or that's what he kept repeating in his head.

(Because if he didn't he might realize he remembered every detail of it.)

He didn't know what had really happened, but one second all had been fine ~~not fine never fine there wasn't anything fine with any of this~~ and the next nothing was.

The kid was dead, the father was dying, and the sons were crying.

(He was crying too but they'll never know because they couldn't, they couldn't or they'll _know_.)

(They already did because how many sky kissed pirates were that could have been alive to board that ship? How many that were suspiciously keen on helping a boy they never met?)

(A man born of a legend he wasn't supposed to know, a man raised by a legend he wasn't supposed to be known by.)

He was beyond screwed, and that was a fact that no clown paint nor East Blue seclusion could change now, but he found that not even that made him want to go back. Not when the kid wouldn't be able to anymore.

(And how relieved had he been when he had known he was free. How glad he had been when he realized that _that_ carnage never got to him.)

(Even when it did to all the others. Even when he had thought it could have never gotten to anyone else but now he knew it could have, but it didn't.)

He had stayed, and he had seen and through his eyes so had everyone else.

The fall of an era by the blood of the innocent.

(The fall of a family by the love of a son.)

(The fall of a family by the pride of a father.)

~~of the fathers~~

* * *

Sphinx was beautiful this time of the year. But never that beauty would be seen again by the one who sheltered it.

The sea was calm in mourning and the sky deprived of all tears. Even the field was empty now, no one yet prepared to see it's sight again. Not so soon.

The graves were drowned in flowers, a whole mountain of them, and it would be beautiful if it wasn't so unbelievable heartbreaking.

(And what did he know about the pain of those who were missing? What did he know about their thoughts and regret? About the hole inside their soul?)

(Except he did.)

Buggy didn't even flinch when a sake cup was seated right in front of him. Nor had he when another Captain had seated himself by his side.

(You never notice what had always been by your side.)

(What always used to be by your side.)

"Wanna drink to remember Bug?"

Of course Shanks wanted to drink, Buggy snorted without humor. He wasn't being honest with himself either.

Shanks never drank for anything that wasn't forgetting.

"I think three cups will do," he gave in.

If Shanks was surprised, he didn't show it, as he started to pour the first one.

(He wasn't.)

(Is blood really thicker than water?)

"Did you know I was coming?"

He wasn't talking about now, Shanks was never one for small talk after all.

(Not with him, not right now, not in from of them.)

_And what kind of question was that?_ , ranted the little voice in his head. Where was he supposed to get that knowledge from? He had been in prison for Davy Jones' sake, News Coo didn't deliver in hell.

He had not heard Shanks was coming, but that wasn't the question.

"Of course."

Shanks breathed a laugh as he sat the bottle down at his side.

Why did he even ask if he already knew the answer?

(Because there was no other, because they had been Roger Kaizoku and time does not break a bow, because neither does it erase what booze can not drown ~~there had been so much blood, how could small bodies have so much blood?~~ because the kid was not theirs but he could have been.)

(Because Buggy had been there and that alone was enough.)

"I wish he did too."

And wasn't that the saddest thing?

That the kid didn't think himself worth of one family rescuing him, when he could have had two?

"I think he would have liked to." A pause. "Or maybe he would have hated us too."

"Maybe," the read-head conceded. "Or maybe we could have shown him not to."

Shanks took a gulp right from the bottle.

(Maybe if they had been faster maybe if they had been stronger maybe if they had been _told._ )

(And there had been so much blood, how could small bodies have so much blood?)

(How could a bay end up red from chasing a baby they now knew had existed?)

(Or would exist, future tense back then. Mother's love is peace, was it?)

"That's not for us to ponder now," Buggy snatched the bottle away from him. "And would have never been for us to decide either way."

Shanks didn't even try to get the sake back. He knew once started he wasn't about to stop on his own.

He _wouldn't be able_ to stop on his own.

(Because how could small bodies have so much blood?)

"Ain't that the truth," he huffed out resigned. "But I would have liked it for him to actually have a voice on it."

Well the kid certainly didn't get to make many choices by himself, Buggy acknowledged bitterly.

(And how big was the irony that the son of the freest man on history got to live all his life in chains?)

(How big was the irony that the heaviest of those chains were the ones he carried because of him?)

(Too late to regret now, isn't it Captain?)

"He did have a voice at the end."

Now Shanks did turn to him, not having expected those words from his ~~friend brother nakama~~ fellow Captain.

And then he laughed.

And laughed. And laughed.

(Do you know what the Pirate King did when the treasure he sought was placed in front of his very eyes?)

Shanks laughed and so did Buggy, and they laughed and curled down into themselves and kept on until they were breathless and aching and spent.

(And any tears that slipped trough were just a product of their riots.)

"Damn right he did!" Shanks raised his cup in the air. "And for that we toast."

"And for that we toast," Buggy repeated holding his own cup.

And they arose them once, and twice and three times.

One for the father who was never theirs, one for the child who could have been, and a last one for the man who never got to be ~~father Ace's Buggy's Shanks' theirs~~.

* * *

Sphinx was beautiful this time of the year.

But no more would that beauty be seen by those who slept in it.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been a result of my One Piece re-read, specially my Marineford Arc re-read.  
> Honestly I never thought I'd find myself writing from Buggy's pov, but he actually has so much potential!  
> In any case, I have too many feelings about Ace, and the Whitebeards, and Buggy and Shanks, so here I have ended up portraying a scene about all of it.  
> I really enjoyed writing this, so I hope you enjoyed reading it too ~
> 
> PD: "Mother's love is peace" is a quote from Erich Fromm.


End file.
